This has to be my most edgy pick of the year and I dare anyone but Solomon to have heard of it before (cause he was nice enough to show it to me). Some random bandcamp band with a member of Dornfall, a French prog rock band is the brains behind this project, but going into my first listen I had absolutely no idea what to expect.

The first track is nice and peaceful, but so melancholy that as unassuming as the track is, there is an underlying suspicion something is coming, something foreboding. It is just a loop of a piano melody with various garbled lyrics being repeated over and over with strings sometimes playing and sometimes a few bass notes being plucked here and there. Really a minimalist track and if it was to preview the album, I would not have had high hopes at all. And then the second track hits in all of its filth and obscenity with screeching electronic sounds, alarm like noises and some wailing woodwind in the very background . As quick as that started though, a nice harmonic flute begins playing and by this time not only did I have no idea what in God’s name I was listening to, the music had changed again to a deep, heavy static, bass sound that literally vibrated my head phones off my ears.

When I expected a little consistency after those quick changes, I was rewarded with what sounded like nails on a chalkboard as deafening, shrill static and mini electronic explosions on “Oils” blew through my headphones. It was almost too painful to listen to and just as I was about to wrench my headphones away from my ears it stopped to fade to a distorted acoustic guitar with a woman singing with that same melancholy air of the first piano song. There is a simple backbeat from a tambourine and there are slight tendrils of piercing static that fade in and out but peace had finally been achieved. Or so I thought. “Teem,” the second to last track on the album started the same way as “Oils” with the deafening static but this time ended a lot quicker than last time. So I really I had zero clue how it would all wrap up.

The album closed out with another acoustic like song that still had electronic bass to hold it all together but the same woman continued to sing in her haunting voice. That was followed by an even more fading static filled drum track with wilin’ guitar playing that was unheard on the rest of the album. It stuck with the weird theme and small explosions still occurred on the albums way out but when it was done I was in a state of shock. It was unlike anything I had ever heard before and the rollercoaster ride I felt like I had been on just made me want to listen to it again, right away to make sure I had heard what I actually thought I had. It was the most intense, unique listen of the year for me, and I think that came from the fact I had no expectations going in and came out astounded at the possibilities of how sounds can be put together to make music.